So apparently a disgruntled senior socceroo who has been in the squad for ten years has chosen to send an anonymous email spilling the beans on the off-field antics of the socceroos. None of the current team made their debut in 1999 and apart from Schwartzer who is mentioned in the email, only Neil, Kewel and Chipperfield have been in the roos for more than 10 years (not Sterjovski as I wrote to the Tele below before checking wiki).
For some reason this anonymous player, who we can only assume must be Kewel or Chipperfield as it is a criticism of team leadership which implicates the Captain Neil, chose to send this email two a rugby league blogger notorious for his anti football stance which is well documented by Mike at The Football Tragic. Are we to believe that in the best interests of the game a concerned Socceroo has chosen to confide in The Daily Telle's Phil "Its not football" Rothfield and Rebecca "socca is for girls" Wilson?
Or is it possible that the email is from a Football hater who did not realise that it would be very rare for a player to be in the soceroos for ten years and also did not realise that while they only became aware of football with the 2006 world cup, it probably did not actually turnthe socceroos into "big-time charlies".
The Telle claim the email was confirmed by a phone call. I would want more proof than that before I published these kind of allegations. Especially when should they be true the list of possible anonymous whistle blowers is very short.
We sent this comment to Phil and Wilson this morning, but wont hold our breath for a response, or even publication.
"Seems very unlikely to me that a Socceroo would choose Rebecca and Phil to confide in. No offence intended, but there is no shortage of dedicated Soccer Journos who have a proud record of criticising the national set up and the FFA.
If a socceroo who had been in the national team for ten years had really written this, it is unlikely that they would have mentioned that fact, as so few players have achieved that feat. Of the current squad, none have been in the socceroos as long as Shwartzer and only Kewel, Chipperfield and Stirjiovski have been in the team for 10 years.
Also the idea that the lads have started feeling like "Big-time Charlies" and that it has got worse since the world cup sounds like an assumption that would be made by a non-football person. The world cup did not turn these players into big stars, European football did. The media and fan attention they get playing for their european clubs would be much more likely to go to their head than the vaguely increased profile of the socceroos in australia since 2006.
Also seems odd that the email has no salutation or request for anonymity. I think we should take this anonymous email with a pinch of salt."
No publication yet :(
Infact they seem to ahve stopped publishing comments after 20ish - perhaps doubts are are begining to form...
Posted by: Ed | June 22, 2009 at 02:51 PM